The fleet of Pedro Álvares Cabral leaves Lisbon for the Indies. The fleet will discover Brazil which lies within boundaries granted to Portugal in the Treaty of Tordesillas

1566

David Rizzio, private secretary to Mary, Queen of Scots, is murdered in the Palace of Holyroodhouse, Edinburgh, Scotland

1765

After a campaign by the writer Voltaire, judges in Paris posthumously exonerate Jean Calas of murdering his son. Calas had been tortured and executed in 1762 on the charge, though his son may have actually committed suicide

1796

Napoléon Bonaparte marries his first wife, Joséphine de Beauharnais

1811

Paraguayan forces defeat Manuel Belgrano at the Battle of Tacuarí

1841

The U.S. Supreme Court rules in the United States v. The Amistad case that captive Africans who had seized control of the ship carrying them had been taken into slavery illegally

1842

Giuseppe Verdi's third opera, Nabucco, receives its première performance in Milan; its success establishes Verdi as one of Italy's foremost opera writers

1842

The first documented discovery of gold in California occurs at Rancho San Francisco, six years before the California Gold Rush

1847

Mexican–American War: The first large-scale amphibious assault in U.S. history is launched in the Siege of Veracruz

1862

American Civil War: The USS Monitor and CSS Virginia fight to a draw in the Battle of Hampton Roads, the first battle between two ironclad warships

1896

Prime Minister Francesco Crispi resigns following the Italian defeat at the Battle of Adowa

1908

Inter Milan was founded on Football Club Internazionale, following a schism from the Milan Cricket and Football Club

1910

The Westmoreland County coal strike, involving 15,000 coal miners represented by the United Mine Workers, begins

1916

Mexican Revolution: Pancho Villa leads nearly 500 Mexican raiders in an attack against the border town of Columbus, New Mexico

1925

Pink's War: The first Royal Air Force operation conducted independently of the British Army or Royal Navy begins

1933

Great Depression: President Franklin D. Roosevelt submits the Emergency Banking Act to Congress, the first of his New Deal policies

1944

World War II: Japanese troops counter-attack American forces on Hill 700 in Bougainville in a battle that would last five days

1944

World War II: Soviet Army planes attack Tallinn, Estonia

1945

The Bombing of Tokyo by the United States Army Air Forces begin, one of the most destructive bombing raids in history

1945

World War II: A coup d'état by Japanese forces in French Indochina removes the French from power